A Swing Before and After

This first photo is the 'not so lovely' look at my swing 'before'.  A neighbor had given me this swing about two years ago and my husband had given me an ultimatum...he said if I didn't fix it up before the end of this summer he was trashing it.  Now, any reasonable person probably would have just forgot about it because it was looking kind of hopeless, but I'm always up for a good challenge.  So yesterday I figured since I only had five days left of summer before school official starts, I had better get a moving on the makeover.

I stripped all the old, yucky padding from the seats, and bought 6 cans of Ruby Red spray paint.  I washed the swing, let it dry, and then went to town spraying the entire thing red, including my sandals, and feet (which afterward made me look like I had a super bad sun burn), Oh, it was so funny!

I then had to come up with a tricky way to make supports for the back and seat, since ripping off the cushions eliminated the supports.

I went to Lowe's and after searching the aisles for strapping, I found BUNGY CORDS!!!!!! 

Oh, those things rock!

As you can see in the photo below I used the 24" flat, rubbery bungy cords and hooked them on one side and the other.  They worked absolutely perfect.  They are pretty tight and do not sag much at all.

The four blue cushions I found are outdoor chair pads and they were the perfect size.

I temporarily draped a vintage table cloth over the top for shade, but eventually will make a cover.

I'm absolutely over the moon in love with my 'new' outdoor swing.